Sears Plans Nature Area At New Site

Sears, Roebuck & Co. is working with local conservationists to plan a nature corridor in the heart of its massive Hoffman Estates development.

The 30-acre wetlands tract may become a crucial link between two major Cook County forest preserves as well as a sanctuary for two endangered bird species.

``There are many other developers who wouldn`t spend a nickel on anything like this,`` said Waid Vanderpoel, spokesman for Citizens for Conservation, Barrington.

``So far, from what we`ve seen, we`re very pleased,`` said Thomas Hahn, associate director of the Open Lands Project, Chicago.

Representatives of the Citizens and Open Lands groups and the Cook County Forest Preserve District have talked with Sears in recent weeks about setting aside part of its 788-acre development parcel for nature.

Up to 12 million square feet of office, retail, hotel, service, industrial and research buildings are proposed for the land north of the Northwest Tollway and west of Illinois Highway 59.

Under development plans recently approved by the Hoffman Estates Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals and to be heard Tuesday night by the Village Board Planning, Zoning and Building Committee, Sears would preserve or create 91 acres of wetlands.

About one-third of the wetlands would form a nature corridor along the west side of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad track, which bisects the Sears parcel from north to south.

Sears, which would create the nature area in the early stages of its project, would be required by Hoffman Estates to care for it for at least five years or find a responsible party to do so.

Guy Eberhart, a Sears spokesman, said the company may transfer the land to the Cook County Forest Preserves to create a greenway connecting the Spring Creek Valley Preserve in Barrington Hills to the north with the Poplar Creek Preserve in Hoffman Estates to the south.

Or Sears could donate a conservation easement to the Corlands affiliate of Open Lands to ensure that the corridor forever remains undisturbed, Hahn said.

Citizens for Conservation had been pushing for some type of connecting corridor long before Sears announced its development plans one year ago this month, Vanderpoel said. It would connect two preserves, each larger than the Sears tract, and would let animals cross from one preserve to the other.

``We hope to attract a variety of wildlife to the corridor and to create a habitat and environment that will support heron and other unique species,`` such as minks, foxes and coyotes, said Donald Hey, president of Hey & Associates, a Chicago-based environmental consultant to Sears.

Hey said that an environmental census of the site uncovered 18 species of mammals on the Sears land and 33 species of birds, two of which are on the state list of endangered species-the yellow blackbird and the black tern. The two bird species would continue to reside in the planned nature corridor.

Sears wants the corridor to be a wildlife sanctuary, closed to the public, while Citizens for Conservation and Open Lands would prefer some public access. Vanderpoel said if developers put in a trail, people would most likely stay on it and not disrupt the surroundings.